Singapore has different concerns in regards to the Covid vaccine where the people thing it’s not a pressing matter to get the jab as soon as possible.
It was a year ago when Singapore found its first corona patient a man from Wuhan who had stayed in sentosa for a family holiday. A strict 8 week lock down and 1 year later Singapore seems to have the virus under control with bare minimum clusters being reported in a rare situation.
Since it has been very good progress for Singapore the city has now turned its attention to a vaccine drive and promised its citizens free shots. Singapore has already inoculated 6,200 people with the first batch of vaccines received on the 21st of December which included its prime minister and frontline workers.
There are 36 more vaccine centers to be set up which can have up to 20,000 people per day according to a government tender, there will also be 10 mobile unit that can do mass vaccinations in places such as nursing homes. This meant that there could be up 70,000 people inoculated daily and since the vaccine itself needs to be given in 2 doses Singapore could have vaccinated all it citizens in under 6 months.
The one thing is that there is hesitancy with the Singaporean people. As there have also been deaths while taking the vaccine that caused complication, in India they are facing the same thing as people are scared to face the vaccine and there being complications later on. The US is dealing with anti-vaxxers spreading conspiracy theories and people not wanting the vaccine. In Singapore the problem would be that the people have such faith in the government controlling the vaccine that they will not see the heightened importance of taking the vaccine and take up a “wait & See” attitude.
There were surveys conducted in regard to the vaccine where 6 out of 10 Singaporeans said they will take the vaccine if it meant that they were safe and they were keeping the country safe and being responsible citizens. Even though this is about 285 to 735 of the population the survey clams that it will require up to 90% of the population to be inoculated.
There are media reports claiming that it is not only the normal day to day people but also high risk groups such as health care workers who are showing hesitancy to take the vaccine, a nurse in the public hospital claimed that she did not want to take the vaccine as she hope to get pregnant and the vaccine could cause complications for her.
The transport minister has told Singapore airline that he would like them to be the world first carried with ta 100% inoculation rate and it was seen that only half of them even though eligible had signed up to get the jab. There were other who also felt like there was no heightened necessity to get the vaccine and that they could possibly give it more time.
It is views like this that make it hard for the vaccine drive to be a success like the city wanted it to be. Even though the country has been successful in fighting the virus the health sector is now trying its best to tell the people that this wait and see attitude will not be good in the future, they are urging the people not to wait for the virus to get into a widespread situation and that by getting inoculated this can be avoided altogether.
The Dean of NUS says the vaccine is one of the most powerful tool Singapore has to protect its people and to make sure that the health care sector remain resilient in case there is an emergency with this pandemic. Experts have claimed that even though there is a vaccine people must still be careful as the vaccine may prevent the disease but it is yet to know that if it can stop people from being carriers of it and spreading it.
Singapore unlike most countries are relatively back to normal and are in the third and final phase of opening up their economy and apart from night clubs and karaoke lounges most other establishments are now open and groups of maximum 8 people are allowed wearing masks and keeping a meter apart for safety reasons.
There is no clear cut incentive for the people getting this vaccine and the doctors at NUS are saying the authorities are doing the right thing by not forcing the people to take the vaccine either. When it comes to thing like this Dr. Lim states that it is better to lead by example and education and information.
Singapore does not have organized anti vaccine movements which means that the people could be given all the confirmation they needed on the vaccine and educated as to why they should take the vaccine.
